We were already witnessing a shift in the CFO’s responsibilities before the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Senior financial decision-makers were starting to appreciate the value that modern financial management solutions delivered at a time when everything seemed to be changing: the nature of business, end-users, employees, customer expectations, and digital tools.
And then the pandemic happened, accelerating digital transformation and amplifying the associated challenges – especially those around governance, remote working and cybersecurity. The Sage CFO 3.0 research was perfectly timed, especially for South Africa – the first Sage region to survey CFOs and other senior financial decision-makers about the impact of Covid-19 on their business operations.
Yes, senior financial decision-makers acknowledge that managing a remote workforce and leading a business through lockdown and social distancing is weighing on their minds. That’s understandable, since the world hasn’t seen disruption on this scale before. But what the researchers found most interesting was the confidence among CFOs that had already invested in cloud-based financial management technology and prioritised digital transformation before Covid-19. Some of these businesses even grew through the crisis.
In trusting technology to automate much of the finance function and allowing data to change the dynamics of decision-making, most of the senior financial decision-makers we surveyed said they actually had time to focus on digitisation to help shape business strategy and drive growth. One thing is clear: Today’s CFOs are transforming into real-time analysts, and they’re part of a C-Suite force leading the digital transformation agenda in their organisations.
Download the whitepaper to discover where you fit into the era of the CFO 3.0.
